Bernadette Speach

Bernadette Speach (born January 1, 1948) is an American avant-garde composer and pianist.

Known for her minimalist approach, she often synthesizes improvisation and through-composed material.

Born in Syracuse, New York, Speach earned her B.S. in Music Education from the College of Saint Rose in 1971.

Five years later, while studying abroad in Siena, Italy, she was introduced to Franco Donatoni and Morton Feldman.

She went on to study with Feldman, alongside composers Lejaren Hiller and Leo Smit, at SUNY Buffalo, where she finished her M.A. and Ph.D. in Music Composition, and before that studied under Jacques Louis Monod and Nicolas Rousakis at Columbia University.

Although trained in the classical idiom, Speach is equally rooted in jazz, and in the latter vein includes room for aleatory elements in her compositions, ranging from solo and chamber to orchestral and vocal/choral works.

An example is her second string quartet, les ondes pour quatre (1988), which blends fixed and free durations.

Notable performers of her work include the Brooklyn Philharmonic Orchestra under Lukas Foss, the Absolute Chamber Orchestra under Kristjan Järvi, pianist Ursula Oppens, saxophonist Oliver Lake, Duo Avanzando, pianist Anthony de Mare, the Soldier String Quartet, soprano Joan LaBarbara, Arditti String Quartet, and cellist Frances-Marie Uitti.

Her music has been programmed in such venues as Roulette Intermedium (NYC), Festival International de Musica (São Paulo, Brazil), the Ravinia Festival (Highland Park, IL), Merkin Hall (NYC), Walker Art Center (Minneapolis, MN), the Internationales Musikinstitut (Darmstadt, Germany), and the Knitting Factory (NYC).

Before her current post at SUNY Adirondack, she held positions at Darmstadt (1988), The New School (1994–98), SUNY Purchase (2005), the College of Saint Rose (2009–14), and Brooklyn College (2001–08, 2012–13), and has been a guest lecturer at many others besides.

She has also served as panelist and advisor for a large number of organizations, including Colorado Council on the Arts, Jerome Foundation, Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust, New Music America Festivals, NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, and the New York State Council on the Arts.

She also served as executive director for The Kitchen (1996–98) and Composers’ Forum, Inc. (1986-1990) in New York City.

She continues to vitalize the northeastern United States music scene through her multiple roles as fundraiser, presenter, and educator, seeking new relationships between sounds and their interpreters.

Speach has been composer-in-residence at the Brooklyn College Electroacoustic Studio (2002), received a fellowship from the New York Foundation for the Arts (1998–99), and received grants and awards from Arts Midwest (1993), Margaret Fairbank Jory Copying Assistance Program (1989 & 1997), and Meet the Composer (1985-2001).

She is also a seasoned improviser—sharing performances with her husband, guitarist/composer Jeffrey Schanzer and poet Thulani Davis, among others—and as pianist is regarded for her interpretations of the keyboard repertoire of John Cage, including In a landscape and his pieces for toy piano.

Speach is a lifelong teacher and arts administrator.

Other commissions have come from percussionist Ricardo Souza (Only/Solimente for solo vibraphone, 2004), soprano Lauralyn Kolb (Set of Three for soprano and piano, 2005), the National Endowment for the Arts 1992 (Parallel Windows – Unframed for piano and orchestra, 1996), the Minnesota Composers Forum 1992 (Avanzando for bass clarinet, piano, marimba, vibraphone and glockenspiel, 1993), iEAR Studios/Department of the Arts/Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute 1989 (9/8/89 for digital sampler and tape, 1990), the Manhattan Neighborhood Network/The Kitchen Video Workshop, 1995-96 (Angels in the Snow, a film/video documentary with solo piano), and the New York State Council on the Arts, 1992 (Baobab 4 for flute, clarinet, alto saxophone, trombone, acoustic and electric guitar, bass, two pianos, balafon, reciter, three women’s voices and dancer, 1994).

In 2010, she was commissioned by the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center to compose a piece as part of pianist Anthony de Mare’s “Liaisons: Re-imagining Sondheim from the Piano.” The result was In and Out of Love and received its premiere at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center in 2011.

In and Out of Love (2010)

after “Liaisons” and “Send in the Clowns” (A Little Night Music) by Stephen Sondheim.

Commissioned by Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center

after sunrise (2011)

for percussion and clarinets

April 2, 2011, Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center/UMD School of Music.

Performed by Anthony de Mare (piano)

Recording: ECM New Series.

Liaisons: Re-imagining Sondheim from the Piano.

altrove/elsewhere (2012)

for piano/toy piano and violin

February 4, 2012, Music of Now Marathon, Symphony Space, NYC.

Performed by Bernadette Speach (piano/toy piano) and Madalyn Parnas (violin)

October 24, 2012, University of Arkansas, Fort Worth.

Performed by Duo Avanzando: Ricardo Souza (percussion) and David Carter (clarinets)

Inspired by “Liaisons” and “Send in the Clowns” from Stephen Sondheim’s A Little Night Music, In and Out of Love was released September 2015 as part of a 3-CD set of the entire “Liaisons” project recorded by de Mare for the ECM label to critical acclaim.

Its producer, Judith Sherman, received a Grammy Award for Classical Producer of the Year.

Her large-scale work Embrace the Universe (2001), for orchestra, mixed chorus, soprano, viola and piano was premiered May 9, 2016 at Teatro Petruzzelli in Bari, Italy.

Pillars (2017)

for piano, electric guitar and saxophone

April 29, 2017, Tannery Pond Center at Tannery Pond Community Center, North Creek, NY.

Performed by Bernadette Speach (piano), Jeffrey Schanzer (electric guitar) and Oliver Lake (saxophone)